The Golden State Warriors traveled to American Airlines Arena to face the Dallas Mavericks today in a Pacific time matinee on Saturday. Andrew Bogut and David Lee were both out. Bogut had his knee drained yesterday and was listed as out for this game and the next, in New Orleans, while Lee is still out with a strained hamstring. Both players traveled with the team, but Bogut had flu-like symptoms and did not sit on the bench with the team.
Chandler Parsons was out with a sore back for the Mavericks. Former Warrior Richard Jefferson got the start in his place, to match up on Draymond Green, which meant that Dirk Nowitzki matched up on Harrison Barnes. Jameer Nelson returned to the starting lineup, back from missing one game.
1ST QUARTER: We’re Seeing Things We’ve Never Seen Before
Despite the absence of Bogut, the Warriors stepped onto the court today as if they had something to prove. Festus Ezeli once again got the start in place of Bogut and immediately made his presence felt with a putback of a Barnes missed jumper shortly after tipoff.
The highlights continued:
- With Jefferson covering Green, Barnes easily got a step on Nowitzki and made a nice crossover from the left elbow and finished with a reverse layup.
- Stephen Curry delivered an assist to a Klay Thompson trey from the right elbow after Green set a pick on Monta Ellis.
- After Jefferson got a corner trey to go as a result of Barnes trying to go over the Dallas screen, Curry came right back with a step-back three-pointer.
- Pushing the ball early offense, Curry blew by Nelson and then a helpless Nowitzki and made a left-handed sling pass to Thompson on the elbow beyond the arc, which made it 15-5, Warriors, with 8:18 to go in the first frame.
- Barnes did another pump fake in traffic in the paint and got a lefty to go.
- Green got a defensive rebound, dribbled it up, spun, and his jumper tickled the rim and in.
- Ezeli got a tap on a defensive rebound try while fending off the long arms of Tyson Chandler, Barnes retrieved it, and found Klay on a leak for a runout layup.
- Thompson had a couple of easy plays against the slow-footed Jefferson, one them a couple dribbles to the free throw line from the left side, jumper good.
- Ezeli got fouled on a slam dunk attempt, which would’ve been assisted by Curry, and Festus made both free throws.
- Curry hit a thirty-foot three-pointer from a baseline-out-of-bounds play, backing up to catch the pass after Ezeli set the pick. That made it 28-12, Warriors, with 4:01 to go.
- Curry got Jae Crowder switched on him then delivered a laser pass to a cutting Shaun Livingston for an easy layup.
- Barnes got a power offensive rebound among three Mavericks in the paint and put it back on Nowitzki. The replay showed that Barnes was fouled, but Barnes didn’t complain and just ran back on defense after the strong putback.
- Curry got his own “should’ve-been-an-and-one” after Livingston got a steal, going with a reverse layup lefty on the break and absorbing a little bit of contact. He, perhaps, should’ve sold the foul a little bit more, but nevertheless still made the bucket.
- On a 2-for-1 at the end of the quarter, J.J. Barea tried to get a layup, missed, and the Warriors delivered the ball to Curry in the corner, who faked the shooting motion, then launched it, and made the three, to get the Dubs their own 2-for-1.
The only things that went wrong for the Warriors were the following:
- With 6:15 to go, Green picked up his second personal foul. It was on a Crowder corner trey, although the ref called it on the floor and not a shooting foul. Green yelled, “C’mon man!” to the ref as Draymond headed to the other side of the court to sit down on the Warriors bench with the two fouls.
- Nelson burned Thompson for an easy layup, but Klay shook his head in disgust with himself and raised his hand to admit fault on the play. You don’t see many other NBA teams with teammates doing that.
- Nowitzki and Ellis combined to try and stop the Warriors momentum at times, but Ellis started 0-for-5 in the process. They’d cut the Golden State to 32-17 with 1:42 to go.
Livingston got another steal and with 12 seconds to play, Curry crossed over Barea, but missed the step-back three at the buzzer. The Warriors took a 39-18 lead into the second quarter.
Dubs broadcaster Jim Barnett said, “The Warriors are doing things we haven’t seen before and it’s a thing of beauty,” and that pretty much summed it up. Things were going so well that you wanted to pat Curry on the back:
Hey #DubNation give Steph a pat on the back for that great first quarter! #LetsGoWarriorsLive http://t.co/wAt2x6ICwg pic.twitter.com/VXs7DYaY39
— Let’s Go Warriors 💦💛💙 (@LetsGoWarriors) December 13, 2014
2ND QUARTER: Holding Serve
The second unit did their part as well in the second frame, although Marreese Speights ended up with 3 fouls, all on non-bigs such as Ellis, Jefferson, and Devin Harris. Ezeli also got his 3rd at the 7:59 mark and the Warriors up, 46-24.
Livingston posted up on the diminutive Dallas guards and was successful.
The better highlights:
- Although the Mavs found themselves winning most mini-volleyball tips on the offensive glass, one time Curry managed to anticipate where Chandler was going to tip it, and started a fastbreak, getting the ball to Andre Iguodala, who went into traffic but found Thompson wide open for a trey, who missed it. However, Iguodala got the offensive rebound, reset to the top to Curry, who then found Green underneath, wide open, for a dunk.
- Thompson scissored past the Mavericks defense on the right side, rose, and at the last millisecond, flicked it over the shoulder to Barnes in the crowded interior. Barnes rose and put the ball in the hole with two hands.
- Speights got a layup and a dunk. The layup was via a Thompson fake three-pointer that he drove into the paint the found Livingston who found Green who found Speights. The dunk was assisted by Iguodala on an ATO (after-timeout play) called by head coach Steve Kerr.
- Curry easily crossed Nowitzki at the top and got a layup on the left side, although he used his right hand to finish the banker.
- Jefferson back-rimmed a three-pointer and Curry corralled the long rebound and immediate threw a touchdown pass to a leaking Klay, which forced Dallas coach Rick Carlisle to call timeout with the Warriors leading 62-34 and 1:58 go to before halftime.
- After a rare Harris three-pointer, Curry went by Barea and lofted a high teardrop over Chandler to close out the quarter.
The Warriors forced the Mavs into 11 turnovers (they average only 8.5 per game) and took a 66-44 lead into halftime. The #SplashBrothers combined for 17 points each. Curry added 6 assists and Green 6 rebounds. Ellis only had 7 points for Mavs, who were led by Nowitzki with 13. The Warriors held the Mavs to just 37% shooting.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
